John Ashcroft on Families & Children

Former Attorney General; Former Republican Senator (MO)

Fight the assault on the American family

Q. What do you identify as the number one challenge facing children today and how do you propose to address it?

A. The assault on the American family is the number one challenge facing our nation’s children. Social scientists have documented
the fact that children raised in strong, supportive families have lower incidences of crime, addiction, abuse, illness, and underachievement. That is why in the Senate I have focused on access to affordable
health care for families, welfare reform that rewards work and family formation, flexible work schedules that enable parents to be at home when it counts the most, marriage tax relief
and a $500 per child tax credit so that parents can decide family priorities, and improving educational opportunities.

Focus on kids: drug-free schools & good health care

Q: What would be the top three health priorities to improve the health and safety of children?

A: We must communicate to our children the need to live a life free of drugs and crime.
I secured in law a provision banning those convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine from living in public housing or receiving subsidies.

Children must have a safe environment
in which to learn. I secured a change in federal law ensuring that schools can remove from the classroom any child who possesses weapons on school grounds.

Children must have access to proper health insurance and immunizations.
I sponsored a provision in 1996 requiring welfare recipients to ensure that their children are current on immunizations as a condition for receiving benefits.

More parental involvement to reduce juvenile crime

Q. There is broad, national concern about the need to reduce children’s risk of firearm injuries. What do you propose to protect children from injury or death from firearms?

A. As a parent and grandparent, I believe the most important
thing we can do to protect children from such risk is to increase parental involvement. Accidental firearms deaths, while decreasing, are still too high. We must be ever vigilant in monitoring the horrific graphic violence of television and movies
to which our children are routinely exposed. Congress can help parents by making safety education available, encouraging the sale of safe storage devices currently sold with most firearms, and limiting unsupervised access to firearms.
The Administration can help by strictly enforcing current laws to keep guns out of criminals’ hands and out of schools.

Voted NO on killing restrictions on violent videos to minors.

Vote to kill an amendment that would prohibit the distribution of violent video programming to the public during hours when children are reasonably likely to comprise a substantial portion of the audience. Voting YES would kill the amendment proposing the new restrictions. Voting NO would suport the amendment proposing the new restrictions.